Travelling at speeds of 107,826kmh, it's nearly 15 times faster than the world's quickest manned aircraft - the hypersonic North America X-15, which can reach speeds of 7,300kph,The Daily Mail reported.

It is expected to pass Earth on February 4 at a distance of around 4,208,641km away.

Nasa has described the asteroid as "potentially hazardous" but does not believe it will collide with Earth. Any asteroid that comes within 7,400,000km of Earth is described as 'hazardous' by Nasa.

To put this in perspective, the distance between the Earth and the moon is 384,400km.

The asteroid is the largest space rock to come close to Earth this year and previous research has found that a rock of this size could cause a mini-ice-age on Earth if it hit.

Average temperatures around the world would fall as much as 8C due to the impact, according to a 2016 study on the effects of a collision with a 0.965 km-wide asteroid.